Dartmoor North to South

A hard walk (low hills and fells (below 600m)) in national park Dartmoor starting and finishing in Devon, England, about 42.00km (26.10 mi) long with an estimated walking time of about 13:45h (1 overnight stay). It is unsuitable for families with children, prams & pushchairs, wheelchairs.

This classic two day amble across the wilds of the West Country is blessed with excellent public transport links at either end and a warm, friendly and welcoming pub for the overnight stay in Princetown

Whilst some people do manage the whole route ina day, why rush ! Take the weight of your feet and a pint in your hand at either of Princetons public houses. Accommodation is also available to suit the pocket, from a night under canvas, a bunk behind the Plume, or a comfortable B and B.

11 comments... join the discussion!

Jack Robinson

10 Feb 2018

Nepal Charity Fundraiser

A friend and I will be tackling this walk possibly next weekend (weather permitting) in aid of Raleigh International Trust.
Does anyone have any useful tips / words of advice? We're both fit and able bodied and planning on starting very early am and finishing in a day.
Feel free to take a look at the fundraiser page!

Thanks Will. The best place to check when the ranges are being used is here: http://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/visiting/vi-planningyourvisit/dartmoor-military-firing-ranges
There are links from there to the latest information.

Will

10 Dec 2016

Watch Out For Ranges

Thanks for the route, I completed it with two fiends this week. We walked south to north to give ourselves more walking time on day two. If the ranges have firing going on you have to avoid the danger areas on the map, but the marker posts make an obvious route to follow. We went around the east side of the ranges and it probably added a mile or so :)

Neil

30 Jan 2014

Wild Camping/dangers

Hi i'm thinking of doing this walk over a couple of days, with a slight detour near to avon dam near the end. where are the best spots to wild camp? Was thinking of camping near princetown/two bridges and then again maybe near the dam. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks, Neil.

Hi there,
Well it's certainly possible to do it with a 10-year-old, but don't underestimate how wild it gets! Also, the moor is pretty much divided into two halves, with the road through the middle. The other halves are basically empty, so you would need to camp. Could be great in good weather!
One alternative would be to head along one side, rather than go through the middle. So if you chose the paths along the eastern side, for example, you have a few get-out points where you can hop to a village for the night.
My advice would be go for it, but have a plan b in case the weather turns bad as it can turn very quickly out there and when it's wild, it's wild!

Wheatland Farm

04 Mar 2013

Suitable For 10yr Old?

Hi, thinking about crossing Dartmoor with my 10yr old son in summer 2013. He's pretty active but it might take 4days not 2? Would the terrain be ok if we took it slower and bivvied along the way? Think we'd only try it if forecast was good, being fairly local we'd wait for clear skies!

Hi John
The main thing to check is connections to Okehampton. There are usually buses, but the train from Exeter doesn't always run so check beforehand.
We did this one in the summer (from south the north) and stayed at Foxtor cafe in Princetown - good base and great breakfasts. www.foxtorcafe.com. A write-up on our blog: http://www.carfreewalks.org/blog/a_walk_in_two_woods.html
Two tips: make sure you have wet weather gear, as it can be very wet and windy even in June. And make sure your navigation skills are good - the southern part of the moor can be hard to navigate in bad weather when you can't pick out features on the horizon. But it's a great walk, have fun!

John Grace

04 Nov 2012

Across Dartmoor

Four of us are intending this in June 2013.
If you have any further infurmation, please let me know.
many thanks
John

This is a test comment - i did this walk years ago and it's very good. Dartmoor is wonderful, wild, windy, dramatic scenery, often wet, with fantastic outcrops of rock - great for kids to scramble on and climb.